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Friday, July 29, 2011

One night as we were laying in bed I suggested to Cole that we go camping this past Tuesday night since we were both off of work on Wednesday. It doesn't take much to convince him to go camping - so we planned on it and went!

We went to a place pretty close to our home here in Midway that's called Cascade Springs. Since I grew up in Texas I'm used to flat prairies that go on for miles and miles compared to the mountains that now surround me. Because of this the drive up, over, around and through the mountains to get to a campground makes me a nervous wreck every time. Nevertheless it is beautiful and very enjoyable to escape into the middle of nowhere and make good memories with your best friend. :)

Just a side note: we had cause to celebrate this week because the 22nd of this month marks 1 year since the day we met! Had you asked me last summer around this time if I'd be married to the man of dreams by the end of the following winter semester you would've gotten a resounding NO, but I can assure you that we are both so very glad that it all played out the way that it did!

Cole was having a blast by hacking away at some wood!

Our dinner table. :)

Yummy tin foil dinners!

We set the timer on the camera to get a picture of us and it took more than one...

I wasn't expecting more pictures so I dug in.

And then laughed because Cole is a goof ball - as always. :)

We forgot silverware to eat with so Cole made a fork! He's so handy.

We made yummy banana boats for dessert. :)

I wanted our food tied up in the tree because I was scared a bear might come get it, so Cole got to working on a way that he could rig it up in the tree.

Success!

The next morning for breakfast we made omelettes in a muffin tin - they were yummy even though they got a little burnt.

Since we forgot to make s'mores the night before, we got out the stuff to make them and had them in the morning. Haha!

Cole loves peanut butter so he smeared some on a banana and roasted it.

Sadly enough, it fell in the ashes and my first s'more fell in the fire. I guess that goes to show you shouldn't eat s'mores in the morning!

Monday, July 25, 2011

So there was a week on Rachael Ray's show that she made all kinds of yummy waffles during what she called waffle week. I wanted to try one of them out so we bought stuff to make cinnamon apple muffin waffles! It was fairly easy and very entertaining since Cole was helping. He even claimed that he sliced the apples better than Rachael Ray could have. :)

Can you see how focused he is? Tongue stickin' out and everything! :)

Showing off his "thinner than Rachael Ray" apples.

We had to sauté the apples to make them soft and yummy to put on top of the waffles.

You just whip up a muffin mix, stick it in the waffle iron, and top it with the sautéed apples!

And snack on the apple slices that didn't get sautéed with some peanut butter, of course!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the ending product, but just so you know they were pretty yummy! The waffles were a little dry, but I went with a pretty cheap muffin mix so maybe if you got one that was higher quality it would be better. I think I'll have to try it myself and see!

I was also able to get a video of Cole sautéing the apples and making up his own words to a song that was playing, which is something he's really good at and likes to do a lot. Haha! Enjoy it!! :)

Saturday, July 16, 2011

So this past week Cole and I were able to fly out to NYC to spend time with his family and do lots of fun stuff in the big apple and in upstate New York (Rochester, Palmyra areas) as well!

Just a warning: this post covers a whole week of fun times so be ready to do some reading and looking at lots of pictures! :)

Our trip started when we flew on the red eye flight with Darin at 11:30 p.m. of the 2nd and arrived in NY around 6 in the morning NY time. Church wasn't until 1:00 so we got to Darin's apartment that NYU provides for him while he's working out there and went to sleep since we didn't get much sleep on the plane. We then got on the subway and headed to Church right in Manhattan! It's such a blessing to be able to go anywhere in the United States and even the world and be able to worship with people who share your same beliefs and who are learning the same lesson you would've learned had you been at home. I love it!

Cole and I waiting for the subway to take us to church.

Our whole crew on the way to church! Minus Lisa since she was the photographer. :)

As we were leaving it was raining a little so we whipped out the umbrella for the sake of our hair.

The next day was the 4th of July so we just hung out for the morning and afternoon and then headed down to a road by the Hudson River where we staked out a spot to watch the fireworks. It was pretty hot, but we made the time pass by with reading, playing card games, eating yummy NY pizza and enjoying the beautiful sunset. I can't forget to mention the firework show! It was so awesome! Definitely the best one I've ever witnessed!

Madi and I thought this was a good photo op! L to R: Madi, April & Cole's Vans. :)

After the show we along with thousands of other people walked back to our destinations. Cole and I were walking a little ahead of everyone else and ended up getting separated from the rest of the fam, but we decided since we were hungry and needed to use the restroom we'd find a place to eat before going back to the apartment. We found a neat little diner that had a ton of things to choose from and enjoyed a yummy omelet, french toast and OJ. We love to eat breakfast foods!

The next day, Tuesday, we got tickets to watch Spiderman on Broadway for that night so we walked around in Times Square for a bit and then headed to Coney Island to see what it was all about. We had a lot of fun and even got to hang out on the beach for a little bit! Spiderman was really cool despite the technical difficulties they had since Spiderman was flying around all over the place. :)

I asked Campbell to hold my sunglasses while Cole and I were going to take a picture and she made this face while doing so. Haha gotta love her! :)

Does this look familiar?... It's the spot where Cole proposed to me back in December!! :)

Me enjoying my yummy hot dog from Nathan's.

We rode this roller coaster at Coney Island! It was a lot of fun - I may or may not have screamed a little bit.

Us at the beach!

Sometimes it's really hard to get him to take a decent picture...

See what I mean?

But it eventually happens! :)

Outside of the theater where we saw Spiderman that night.

We went to this place and grabbed some really yummy cheesecake after we got out of Spiderman.

While we were in NYC Cole and I wanted to make sure we made time for just the 2 of us to go on a date and boy was it a super fun one! We weren't planning on being gone all day, but we ended up doing just that. It was definitely one of my favorite days with him. :) We started out by eating lunch in Little Italy at our favorite place called Sofia's. They have such yummy food and it was neat to go back since we had been on a date there back in December as well.

Our yummy pizza! We only ate 2 pieces of it and had to end up throwing it away. Sad day! At least we got to eat some of it though...

This was the view from our table.

And us as we were leaving!

We then found the subway we needed to get on and headed back to Broadway to watch Lion King. Growing up that was definitely my favorite movie EVER. Getting to watch the play on Broadway with my most favorite person EVER was definitely an unforgettable experience. The costumes were amazing as well as the performing and the music. Loved it loved it LOVED IT!

This was the view from the theater that Lion King was in.

Scar's costume.

This cool thing was on the wall and it was part of the play. I made Cole pose with it. :)

After the play we walked around and up and down Times Square and went to some of the stores that I hadn't been to like The Hershey Factory, the M&M store and Hard Rock Cafe, which we decided to get dinner at as well.

We got a mixture of dark chocolate peanut, almond, and peanut butter M&M's.

We shard a yummy drink before we had our fancy mac 'n cheese.

We then headed to a fun place called Max Brenner's chocolate factory. They have AMAZING desserts that Cole's family had been raving about so he took me there to experience the chocolate bliss. :)

Our yummy dessert pizza that had bananas with peanut butter and chocolate sauce drizzled all over it. It was so delicious! As well as our peanut butter chocolate shake. We love chocolate and peanut butter in case you didn't know. :)

This was Cole's piece. No mess...

And then mine which seemed to be pouring sauce everywhere! Just my luck.

It was still just as yummy as Cole's though! :)

We called it a night after that and headed back to the apartment. The next morning Cole, Hadley, Mckay and myself went to the Doughnut Plant and had breakfast, saw homeless people bathing in the fountain at Washington Square park, watched a street ball league game on our way home, as well as watched an old man playing wall ball have a bit of an asthma attack and be rescued by local paramedics. Pretty crazy way to start out our day!

We hung out at the apartment for the rest of the day and then that evening we got to go to a Yankee's game!

Our seats were pretty high up, but they were still good enough to watch a good game of baseball!

Derek Jeter was up to bat so we had to get a picture of him while he was on the screen!

I noticed that the Texas Ranger's flag was next to the Yankee's one so I had to get a picture. :)

The next morning we got up, packed up our stuff and drove to upstate New York. It was so green and pretty there! We drove up there to visit some of our Church history sites as well as watch the Hill Cumorah pageant. It's not the kind of pageant where girls are trying to win a sparkly crown. It's more of a play that tells stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It was a good experience for all of us and a lot of fun!

We got some cheeseburgers that were being sold at a fundraising booth and they ran out of regular hamburger buns so they fixed them on 2 hot dog buns! Kinda crazy!

The next morning Cole, Mckay and myself got up and went to see the Church History sites that are located in Palmyra, NY.

At the visitors centers of our church you can walk in and see a beautiful statue of Christ as well as learn more about our church and it's historical sites.

This is the Moroni monument found on Hill Cumorah.

This was the small home that Joseph Smith and his family lived in back in the 1800's.

This was at the printing place where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.

After we saw the Church history sites we went back to the hotel to get Darin, Lisa, Hadley and Campbell to go get lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then drive up to Niagra Falls.

Cole won the trivia game that they always have going at Buffalo Wild Wing's!

We got to Niagra Falls and bought tickets to ride on a fairy that takes you on an awesome little ride to look at all the falls. We didn't have passports so we couldn't go over the Canadian border, but I thought it was pretty cool to be able to see Canada! :)

Cole and I on the "Maid of the Mist."

This is Darin "drinking" some of the water from Niagra Falls. :)

The next day was Sunday so we went to church in Palmyra and afterward we went to the Temple to walk around on the grounds and enjoy the peace and beauty there. We then headed to the sacred grove and walked around in it for a while. It was such an amazing experience to be able to be walking around in the same grove of trees that Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in. Cole and I sat and read the account of Joseph Smith and his experience there also known as The First Vision, which was a great experience. We both have a very strong testimony that our Father in heaven loves us and has a plan for all of His children that will make them happier and blessed beyond belief. Following God's commandments and nurturing my relationship with Him has changed my life and I know that it can change yours as well, if you're willing to let it.

If you have any questions or desire to learn more about our beliefs just go to mormon.org, get in contact with missionaries from our church, send either one of us an email, or give us a call! We would love to answer any questions that you might have.

The flowers on Temple grounds are always so beautiful. :)

Cole and Darin are so much alike in so many ways...they even stand the same way!

After our time in the sacred grove we headed to get lunch and then got dropped off at the Rochester airpot to head back here to Utah. We had a very enjoyable and unforgettable week and feel so privileged and blessed to have been able to have the experiences that we did.